Back to the Hangman 


(Opinions of leading American jour- 
nals on the deportation of Hindu 
political prisoners and _ refugees.) 


FRIENDS of FREEDOM for INDIA 
Room 601, 7 East 15TH STREET 


EB 2 41 NEW YORK CITY 


RESOLUTIONS 


Adopted by mass meeting of Friends of Freedom for India, at Central 
Opera House, New York City, April 10, 1919. 


WHEREAS 


intolerable conditions in India, both political and economic, have 
driven Hindus to challenge the continuation of British rule and ex- 
ploitation; and 


WHEREAS 


many of these Hindus have been forced to seek refuge in America, 
where they have continued to carry on their activities in behalf of the 
independence of their native land, and have been convicted in Ameri- 
can courts and sentenced to imprisonment for violation of war statutes, 
and 


WHEREAS 


these Hindus are now being held for deportation, or are facing 
deportation to India, an action which is tantamount to turning them 
over to their executioners; an action which would mean the violation 
of the American principle of political asylum, granted by the United 
States since its beginning as a nation; therefore 


BE IT RESOLVED 


That we, the Friends of Freedom for India, in mass meeting 
assembled, at the Central Opera House, New York City, on April 10, 
1919, do hereby protest against the continued prosecution of Hin- 
dus by this government, and do hereby demand that all proceedings 
against them, individually and collectively, be dismissed; and further- 
more, that general political amnesty be granted to all political and 
industrial prisoners, and that all Hindus now in prison or out on bail 
on political charges be included in that category. 


AND BE IT ALSO RESOLVED 


that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to President Wilson, 
in Paris, to the Department of Labor, and to the Department of State 
for the information of Congress. 


GOPAL SINGH 
Young Hindu held for deportation. 


| A MESSAGE 
Dear Frienps :— 

Remembering the traditions and principles for which the American people 
have stood, I came to this country to present the case of India. At the hands 
of British imperialism India is undergoing unprecedented and unparalled suffer- 
ing, misery and oppression. My aim has been to arouse the consciousness of 
America to this important question. In doing so, I have been trapped through 
the machinations of British propaganda in this country. I have served one year 
and one day in the Federal prison at McNeil’s Island, Washington. I am now 
held in bail of $1,000, for deportation. If I am deported I will meet the same 
fate as some of my co-workers for the cause of India’s independence. 

May I not éxpress my hearty thanks with a sense of gratefulness for all 
that you are doing for me and my country? I do not fear suffering, because I 
know that many must suffér that suffering may be removed. 

GOPAL SINGH. 


GOPAL SINGH FACES DEPORTATION 
From the New Republic, Feb. 22, 1919. 


Gopal’ Singh, Hindu revolutionary, was convicted of violation of 
the neutrality laws of the United States, and sentenced to one year in 


3 


prison. On February 23rd his sentence expires, and, according to 
our present methods of dealing with undesirable aliens, he will be 
deported to India, there to suffer whatever penalties may be imposed 
for participation in revolutionary activity. Thus, in effect, we shall 
extradite a political prisoner, although we pretend to accord the right 
of asylum as any other free nation does. Suppose that we had a revo- 
lutionary party in the Philippines and that some of its members escaped 
to England; would there be any method by which our Philippine gov- 
ernment could make England surrender them for punishment? None 
whatever; the British have too keen a sense for the meaning of liberty 
to permit it to be whittled away by administrative devices. If Philip- 
pine revolutionists in England violated the British neutrality laws, they 
would be arrested and sent to jail. If their continued presence in 
the country were regarded as undesirable, they would be ordered to 
leave, and find asylum elsewhere if they could. That is as far as we 
can go, ourselves, as a freedom loving people. We ought not to per- 
mit plotting here against friendly governments. But neither ought we 
to help foreign governments in hunting down men charged with polit- 
ical offenses. That is to set precedents we shall have occasion to regret. 


WASHINGTON AND THE HINDU. 


On the 22nd of February countless thousands of heads were 
bared in memory of our valiant and venerable hero—George Wash- 
ington. 

It was he who raised his voice, who used his pen and who wielded 
his sword in the overthrow of the yoke of Great Britain. In our public 
schools, in colleges, in churches and in the assemblies the multitudes 
gathered to pay homage to the man who was “ first in war, first in 
peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” 

As his name was uttered hearts throbbed faster and beat warmer. 
A feeling of awe and reverence swept the whole nation. And all bowed 
to do homage to America’s foremost revolutionist. This, on the 22nd 
of February, 1919. 

A few days ago a Hindu incarcerated behind the prison walls of 
America was notified that when his term expired he would be deported 
to India. The accusation against him was none other than that he tried 
to do for the Hindus precisely that which Washington did for the ~ 
Americans. 

Such is the irony of fate!—The Commonwealth, March, 1919, 


DEPORTED TO DEATH. 
Oakland World, (California), March 28, 1919 


When any nation assumes to be “its brother’s keeper” it takes 
unto itself the responsibility of life and liberty of the people in its 
care. When that nation fails in its assumed guardianship and the 
“kept brothers” fall victims of greed and vicious exploitation, then is it 


1 


a humané act for America to deport men and women who have comé 
to our shores seeking refuge from the master’ nation ? 


India along with Ireland has had its plea before the world for 
liberty for many years. It has reared sons up from among its op- 
pressed people to demand this liberty and the iron heel of despotism 
has trampled them into the dirt. 


Some escaped to our shores and here sought. to organize others 
into a society:for the advancement of the cause of India. Just as hun- 
dreds of societies are organized for the advancement of the cause of 
Treland. 

But there seems to be a difference between an Irish-American and 
an India-American. The Irish can have great parades, their speakers 
can denounce “ The Mother Country” as only Irishmen can do, and 
even our Congress can pass resolutions by large majorities demanding 
the freedom and self-determination of Ireland. 

India, on her knees, pleading for mercy, finds nothing but con- 
tempt and dungeons for her rebel sons and daughters. 

Walt Whitman, America’s greatest singer, said of America, “I am 
the friend of every dauntless rebel.” So how can we “proudly boast 
of our haven of refuge,” when the following can happen to those who 
came to us for protection and help ? 

This list of names is those of Indians who returned to India and 
who were executed on their return after a trial by a commission of three 
appointed by the English government: / 

The men who were executed after their return from the 
U. S.: Only crime—membership in Pacific-Hindustan Asso- 
ciation, Treason: Gurdit Singh, Balwant Singh, Kartar 
Singh, Dhian Singh, Kanshi Ram, Rahmat Ali Khan, Lal 
Singh, Bakhshish Singh, Jeun Singh, Jagat Singh, Sajan 
Singh, Iswar Singh, Mihan Singh, Kala Singh, Atma Singh, 
Buta Singh, Banta Singh, Chanan Singh, Bishnu Ganesh Pin- 
gle, Kanga Singh, Bir Singh, Uttam Singh, Rur Singh and 
Narain Singh. 

And this is a list who are now in the terrible prisons and prison 
camps of India for life: 

Bhai Parmanand, Ram Saran, Rala Singh, Surain Singh, 
Wasawa Singh, Parma Nand, Kala Singh, Udham Singh, 
Indar Singh, Gurdit Singh, Chuhr Singh, Jeun Singh, Kala 
Singh, Kharak Singh, Inder Singh, Shib Singh, Kirpal Singh, 
Chattar Singh, Harnam Singh, Surain Singh, Jagat Singh, 
Bakhshish Singh, Nidhan Singh, Surain Singh, Sher Singh, 
Kehr Singh, Dirdi Singh, Lal Singh, Harnam Singh, Jagat 
Ram, Khushhak Singh, Pirthi Singh, Nand Singh, Bhan 
Singh, Chuhr Singh, Gurkul Singh, Bishan Singh, Madan 


) 


Singh, Indar Singh Garanhi, Jawala Singh, Mangal Singh, 
Piara Singh, Rur Singh, Sher Singh, Basakha Singh, Kishan 
Das, Baja Singh, Jamana Das and Hari Singh. 

Commission of three appointed by English Government. 

They were tried and condemned at Lahore, Punjab, India. No 
jury of Hindus passed on their guilt or innoconce. It was execution and 
prison by British “Commission.” 

And now another is to be deported. 

Gopal Singh was tried and convicted and sentenced for one 
year and a day for carrying on propaganda work for the liberation of 
India, which is said to be against the neutrality laws of this country. 
He acknowledged that he did aid in this propaganda and that he be- 
longed to the association that was organized for that purpose. 

He has served his erm and now after a brief hearing he is ordered 
deported and that means death or imprisonment on his return to “the 
country from which he came.” 

Why send this man back to be killed? Why not do that ourselves 
if he is so bad a man that he is dangerous to human society? 

Did we deport Mrs. Skefington, are we deporting the Irish presi- 
dent who is now in this country urging all Irishmen to back up the 
New Irish Republic ? Are we deporting the retainers of the Czar who 
are plotting every moment for the overthrow of the Soviet Government 
of Russia and the re-establishment of the old order there? 

NO! 

Don’t think that I am advocating the deportation of any of these. 
I am for Ireland, [ am for the Soviet. I would not have friend. or foe 
deported, but in comparison, why the discrimination ? If the law is 
winked at for one or two groups, then why the strict letter of it for 
the Hindu? 

It is answered perhaps in one word:—POWER. The Irish have 
a balance of voting and industrial power in America. The cause of 
India looks as just to us as the cause of Ireland, and we think that the 
cause of the Russian Czar propagandists is absolutely without any 
sense of justice whatever. Again we say why the discrimination ? 

And the brother Hindu mentioned above is not the only one slated 
for deportation. Three more are to go if “the law’ is carried out, for 
we are not disputing that it is “the law.’ 


Bhagwan Singh’s term ends at McNeal’s Island the 29th of July, 
1919; Santokh Singh, October 2nd, 1919, and Taraknath Das, Novem- 
ber 2nd, 1919. They were also convicted for “propaganda” in this 
country and for sending it to their own country. 

The only question that arises is: Should these men be sent to 
India to be shot or to lie in prison for life for propaganda? For 


LIBERTY PROPAGANDA ? 
6 


Wm. Jennings Bryan and La Follette put out the same kind of 
propaganda in behalf of India that these men put out. In fact part 
of their propaganda was what they wrote and circulated. 


Such men as Frank Walsh, Paul U. Kellogg and others of equal 
note are now pleading for these men to be saved from the English 
firing squad. 

Socialists have, of course, never hesitated to stand for India and 
freedom. So in behalf of India we appeal to you, our Comrades and 
fellow workers, to demand a halt on these deportations, and that the 
Hindu be given as square a deal as Ireland is getting at least, and the 
Lord knows that isn’t nearly equal to our boast of being the refuge of 
“every dauntless rebel.” 


To show you that protest does some good you will recall that fifty- 
four radicals were picked up in Seattle and vicinity and deported as 
far as Ellis Island, New York. The Congressman from that district 
boasted that all agitators are to be served that way. Caroline A. 
Lowe and others, including the editor of The Survey Magazine, got 
busy and demanded a hearing for these men and one woman, the re- 
sult is that only seventeen are to be deported, and if our information 
is correct they are not adverse to being deported. A number of them 
are already released and others will be. Even the seventeen, if given 
a public hearing, will be allowed to go free, for some real Americans 
are on he job and autocracy sneaks into its lair when the light of pub- 
licity is thrown on its dark deeds. 


We have no brief, except the brief of humanity, for these Hindus. 
We have the right of an American Citizen to appeal to you, who love 
justice and who do not want the blood of innocent men on your hands, 
to save these men from deportation. 

Murder is murder, and America must not be a partner in the 
crimes of other nations against the men and women who battle for 
liberty. Let us make good our poet’s boast that America “ is the friend 
of every dauntless rebel.” 


THE CASE AGAINST DEPORTATION. 
From the Dial, March 8, 1919 


Weise ave The amendment to the Immigration act goes much further. 
It specifically states that advocacy of the overthrow by force of any 
government whatsoever shall be considered grounds for the deporta- 
tion of any alien. Now, to include this provision within the scope of 
the amendment, is manifestly to make the law ridiculous, or, as is more 
plausibly the case, to make it just an instrument of indiscriminate 
€oercion. .. 

ce gee Who of us cannot today arise in a public meeting and 
denounce the British government in Ireland to his heart’s content and 
end by advocating its overthrow by force? It would be a violation of 


7 


the law, but it would be a violation very unlikely to be brought to a 
grand jury’s attention—unless, of course, we were a “ dangerous ” 
labor agitator. And even then the local District Attorney would be 
likely to be easy. Why? Well, the Irish have a big vote in this coun- 
try; they have the sympathy of a large and powerful section of Ameri- 
can organized labor. In other words, so long as an agitator against a 
foreign government is respectable, so long as he has any political back- 
ing in this couitry, so long as he is not mixed up with any radical wing 
of the labor movement, he can agitate against a foreign government 
as vigorously as he pleases. It is only the weak and the unprotected 
who have to fear deportation. If, for example, the Hindus recently 
scheduled for deportation had an influence on American political life 
commensurate with the Irish, who of us would be so naive as to imagine 
that they would now be awaiting the pleasure of the immigration au- 
thorities? We cite these pitiful cases last, for not only do they illus- 
trate the manifest hypocrisy of the law, but also how far we have wan- 
dered from our former proud estate of political asylum. We stand 
ready today to deport Hindus who advocate the overthrow of the British 
government in India by force-—indeed, we have already actually de- 
ported some of them, blind or indifferent to the fact that such deporta- 
tion for a Hindu nationalist usually means execution by the British 
authorities. As long as any government, however corrupt or tyranni- 
cal, or vicious, is formally recognized, refugees have not the right in 
the United States to advocate the overthrow by force of that govern- 
ment. We do not, of course, say, or even mean to imply, that the 
government of India, under British rule, is either corrupt or ane 
nical, or vicious. But we do say that even 10 years ago it never 
would have occurred to us to deny a Hindu refugee the right to say 
exactly that, if he thought it was true. 


OUR IMMIGRATION BUREAU WOULD HAVE DEPORTED 
GARIBALDI! 
World Tomorrow, March, 1919. 


One of the proudest traditions of Anglo-Saxon law is the right of 
asylum for political refugees. Under it, Mazzini, Kossuth, Garibaldi, 
Marx, Kropotkin and a host of others of all nations have lived, written 
and preached their cause in England or in America free men and un- 
disturbed. Our American immigration laws have always expressly 
excluded alien political offenders from the category of inadmissable 
criminals. Yet at the present time in violation of this spirit of free 
asylum, if not of the letter of our laws, a number of Hindus are serving 
prison terms for activities the aim of which has been to secure a dif- 
ferent political regime for their country, and a number of others are 
under indictment, awaiting trial for similar charges. This latter group 
includes Taraknath Das, now serving a two-year sentence in Leaven- 


8 


worth Prison, Bhagwan Singh, serving eighteen months at McNeil 
Island, Washington; Sailendranath Ghose, under bail in New York, 
and an American woman, Agnes Smedley, also under bail in New York 
City. 


The main charge in the indictments in these cases states that the 
defendants acted as representatives of a “foreign government ”—mean- 
ing the Indian Nationalist Party—without prior notification of the 
Secretary of State. It is needless to state that the Indian Nationalist 
Party is not a foreign government. Another charge is that the defend- 
ants published a book entitled “Isolation of Japan in World Politics,” 
containing “false statements and reports.” This book, among other 
things, states that it is Japan’s duty to Asia, in case of a revolution 
in India, to repudiate the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and support the 
Indian revolutionists. An attempt was made in November to take the 
defendants to San Francisco for trial. An appeal, which is now pend- 
ing, was made to the Supreme Court to resist this removal. 


Another case was started on December 3d in San Francisco against 
Mr. Das, one of the defendants, to revoke his citizenship, which was 
acquired by naturalization a few years ago. This step is believed to 
be but a preliminary to deportation. Deportation for an Indian 
Nationalist has generally meant execution at the hands of the British 
authorities in India. It is this fate which threatens Mr. Singh who was 
released from prison on February 22nd and is now being held for 
deportation. 


Though the charge against every one of the defendants is based 
upon a violation of the Espionage Act, the Hindus and the American 
sympathizers assert that the real power behind the prosecution is the 
British Indian government which, in the recent San Francisco trial, 
openly to extraordinary lengths to secure a conviction. 


These cases are sufficiently similar to those of other revolutionists 
—Puren, Rudovich and Kossuth—who in the past have found refuge 
in America, and who have openly urged their cause and secured finan- 
cial and moral support for it, to have aroused the interest of large 
groups of radical and liberal Americans, 


“DEPORTATION MEANS DEATH FOR A HINDU.” 


Professor Richard Gottheil, of Columbia University, sent a letter to the New 
York Times on April 10th, in which he declared that a mass meeting, held by the 
Friends of Freedom for India, an American organization, was an effort to drive a 
cleft between England and America. He also declared to be absolutely untrue 
the statement that Hindu revolutionaries, deported to India, met death at the 
hands of the British. He made other similar charges, and denounced the mass 
meeting held to protest against the deportation of Hindu refugees and _ political 
prisoners, particularly Gopal Singh, a young Hindu held for deportation in Seattle. 

Professor Robert Morss Lovett, Editor of the Dial Magazine, and Temporary 
President of the Friends of Freedom for India, answered Professor Gottheil’s 
letter. The Times failed to publish it, while at the same time it had given promi- 
nent space to the letter of Professor Gottheil. Professor Lovett’s answer follows: 


Editor of the New York Times 
Sir: 


My attention has been called to Professor Gottheil’s letter in your 
issue of April 10th declaring that the statement “Deportation for a 
Hindu Nationalist ordinarily means execution by the British authorities 
in India,” is an “audacious untruth” which should be “gibbeted at once.” 

Professor Gottheil will recognize that the penalty for treason is 
death, and that Hindu Nationalists are regarded by the British as 
guilty of treason, and will be tried under that charge. Under the 
Defense of India Act, put into effect at the beginning of the war, jury 
trial and the right of appeal are suspended. 


It is hardly necessary to cite cases in which the extreme penalty 
has been visited on Hindu Nationalists. The Government report on 
Revolutionary Conspiracies, page 66, paragraph 143, gives an account 
of the Lahore Conspiracy case of 1916; of 61 tried, 23 were hanged, 
27 acquitted, and the rest sentenced to imprisonment for life in the 
Andaman Islands. The same report gives an account of the Mandalay 
Conspiracy of 1916, resulting in the hanging of 12. 


A case which is closely parallel to that of Gopal Singh, now under 
sentence of deportation, and for whose release petitions are being ad- 
dressed to the Department of Labor, is that of G. V. Savarkar, who 
was accused of aiding in the shipping of arms to India. He was ex- 
tradited from France, and deported to India, where he was sentenced 
to life imprisonment in the Andaman Islands, where he now is. 

A case which illustrates the activity of the British Secret Service 
is that of Dr. Mathura Singh, who was kidnapped by British agents 


10 


in Tashkend, Russian Turkestan, in defiance of the law of nations, and 
on arrival in Kashmir was shot without trial. 

Of the 400 Hindus who sought to enter Canada in 1914, 60 were 
shot after their deportation to India. 

Whether or not we believe that British rule of India is better than 
any alternative, we cannot withhold sympathy from the young Hindu 
patriots whose love of their country takes the form of desire for in- 
dependence, self-determination, self-government, and who dare im- 
prisonment, torture, death in that cause. Their only crime is one which 
Adams, Franklin and Jefferson committed, for whose asylum in France 
we are grateful. 

The refuge which we granted so liberally to revolutionists from 
Hungary, Ireland, Russia and Cuba should not he withdrawn from the 
Hindus. 

Professor Gottheil’s assumption that the whole matter is part of 
a plan to “drive a cleft between America and Great Britain” is absurd. 
On the contrary, while the United States and Great Britain will never 
quarrel over India, it is certain that a measure of ill feeling between 
these nations will result from the continuation of such atrocities as 
are noted above. It is in the interest of Anglo-American understanding 
that Hindus who have escaped to this country be accorded the right 
of asylum and that the activities of the British Secret Service be crushed. 
Above all, American public opinion may render the greatest possible 
service to England in the case of India, as it has already in the case 
of Ireland, by showing itself unmistakably against oppression and 
cruelty. 

Rosert Morss Lovett. 
April 14, 1919 


ACT NOW! 


Send a message to Secretary of Labor Wilson, protesting against 
deportation of Hindus. 

Demand that the continued prosecution of Hindus cease at once 
and that America maintain a shred of her decency toward the oppressed 
of other lands. 

Join the Friends of Freedom for India, an organization which aims 
to maintain the right of political asylum, and to present the truth about 
India to the world. 


11 


The Inquisition Revived 


The Inquisition and the Star Chamber proceedings are a reality in 
India today. 


The Rowlatt Bills, passed by the British Indian Government, and 
now in full force, provide for: 


Search without warrant; arrest upon suspicion, without warrant, 
of any Indian, detention for indefinite duration of time, without trial. 


Accused not confronted with accusors or witnesses, and kept ignor- 
ant of their names; accused has only the right to written account of 
offenses attributed to him, 


Accused denied help of lawyers; no witnesses allowed in his defense. 


Secret trial, before Commission. Trial by jury denied. Right of 
appeal denied. 


Prosecution not bound “to observe rules of the law of evidence.” 
Prosecution given power to use “any and every means in enforcing 
bills and in obtaining confessions.” In other words, TORTURE is 
legalized. 


Internment to certain specified areas of ex-political prisoners; bonds 
for good behavior for period of years. Arrest of associates of ex-political 
prisoners. 


Arrest and imprisonment of persons possessing documents intended 
for publication or circulation—a portion of which might be considered 
seditious. “Seditious” meaning absence of affection for the Government. 


Indians in India are granted the same status as dogs with the rabies. 
Are we, in America, going to send back to the Inquisition men who 
have come to us seeking refuge? 


Join us. Protest against the deportation of Hindus. 


FRIENDS OF FREEDOM FOR INDIA 


Room 601, 7 East 15th Streer, New York City 
Rosert Morss Lovert, Temporary President 


FRANK P. WAtsH, Vice President AGNES SMEDLEY, Secretary 


DupLry Fretp MAtoner, Vice President Lours P. Locuner, Treasurer 


Contributions and monthly pledges requested. 


